The West should pay particularly close attention to the recent reduction in the prison sentence of Viktor Lozinsky, a former member of parliament convicted two years ago in the hideous beating and shooting death of a villager who dared to cross the path of the then-powerful lawmaker in 2009.
Evidence shows the victim, Valeriy Oliynyk, was tortured to death – hunted down, beaten, run over by Lozinsky’s car and shot multiple times. Lozinsky was convicted, along with two accomplices. When one human being commits such brutal acts against another, it is no accident.
Lozinsky already got a short sentence for a murder conviction – 15 years – even though the court cited the “extreme cruelty” of the crime. Last year, another court reduced it by a year. And this month, yet another court consisting of three judges knocked four more years off the sentence – to 10 years.
The reason? The judges found that Lozinsky “didn’t intend his (victim’s) death” and also cited other mitigating factors – the fact that the convicted murderer has two kids and a heart problem.
It’s hard to believe judges could say with a straight face that Lozinsky didn’t intend to kill the victim. All they had to do was look at photos of the corpse and consider the testimony from the two accomplices. As to the other so-called mitigating factors, so what? He should have thought of his kids and his health before killing a person.
Lozinsky has never admitted to the crime, which in more civilized Western courts can be a reason for keeping convicted criminals in prison longer – not cutting them slack. His accomplices got off even lighter, even though they were people who were supposed to be enforcing the law, not breaking it. Yevhen Horbenko, a former prosecutor, had his sentence reduced to six years while Mykhailo Kovalsky, the then local police chief, is free on probation.
The downward revisions involving Lozinsky stink to high heaven and the reasoning given in court is very suspicious.
The inescapable conclusion is that Lozinsky has found a way to influence the courts. He should never be a free man again for what he has done. His case happened to get a bit more attention because of his high profile. We wonder how many other miscarriages of justice are going on behind the scenes, in closed courtrooms, that let rich or well-connected criminals get off lightly or go free.
